I am currently at the local casino. Earl and I are trying our luck this evening and he is having better luck than I am. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just the way it is.
There are a lot of drunk people here. Many are dressed in green and screeching about St. Patrick’s Day, which isn’t until the 17th but the celebratory parade in town took place today and people have been falling down drunk since 10 am or so. As a man with a lot of Irish blood in my veins (as well as the appropriate complexion, hair color and temperament), I kind of get offended by all these people running around coloring anything and everything green, getting stupid drunk and screaming that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. It bothers me. I quipped to Earl that people would be offended if I got drunk and screamed “everyone is black on MLK Jr’s birthday!” I might have mentioned something about black face too but I don’t want to come across as overly insensitive.
Honestly, I want to drink one beer this evening. A Guinness. Nothing more, nothing less. All the “Irish” folks are drinking chilled piss such as Michelob Ultra or Corona, because nothing scream about the old sod like a bottle of Corona.
Perhaps when I find Guinness in this place I’ll be less disagreeable.
March 2016
Sizzle.
I went for my first bike ride of the year yesterday. The weather was rainy, the temperature was in the mid 50s and I hadn’t really planned on going for a ride until the last minute, but I felt determined and energized so I decided to go.
The rode for a little under 45 minutes, clocking in almost 8 miles in that time. It was not my fastest ride by any stretch of the imagination, but it was one of my earliest rides in any given year and despite being soaking wet when I got home, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
We live in what is roughly the geographic center of New York State. Many years ago this “hub” location was chosen by the New York State Power Authority to bring many of the high voltage wires strung across the Empire State together. A couple of miles up the road from us is a big switching station, with guards and helicopters zooming in and out and large sets of power lines going off in all directions to the various corners of the state, neighboring states and Canada and the like. One set of wires headed to Niagara Falls passes about a third of a mile behind the house. Several times a year I watch helicopter pilots navigate along the wires as others on board do inspections of the towers, the wires and the surrounding landing. A couple of times I’ve seen guys in impressive safety suits walking on the wires.
Riding up the wires yesterday I couldn’t help but notice the loudness of the “sizzle” I could hear coming from the wires. The spacers within the lines held the lines in place or the insulators that mount the lines to the tower were making a very audible “sizzling” sound, undoubtedly from the rain and the moisture in the air.
If you look really closely in the picture above, you’ll notice a neighbor’s play area in their backyard directly under the far right leg of the circuit crossing their land. I wondered about the safety of this, as well as the sizzling sound, so I spoke with a friend of mine who used to work up at the Power Authority.
The sizzling sound is not uncommon but is harmless. There have been a lot of studies of the effects of the electric fields generated by these types of lines but none of them specifically attributed any adverse health effects to the electric fields themselves. There may be a link between the creosote used in the wooden poles and health effects. I found this to be quite interesting. Another point of interest was that these two sets of wires that pass through our neighborhood are not the highest voltage of the wires in the area, that honor belonged to the wires that had due north to the Canadian border and Hydro Québec.
I’m tempted to take some fluorescent lights out to the field again like I did a few years ago to see if I can get to light up in my hand. I find electricity to be so fascinating, even when it’s making a sizzling sound.
That’s The Spirit.
A fight broke out on Spirit Airlines flight 141 from Baltimore to Los Angeles yesterday morning. Two women, reported to be intoxicated, brought a “boom box” onto the flight and were playing their music loudly. When a group of other women complained, they turned up the tunes and waved their boombox in the air. Apparently this went on for nearly the duration of the flight and a fight broke out between the two women. Screaming, punching, hair pulling, the works. One of the flight attendants was punched in the face. Several onlookers recorded the fight on their iPhones so that they could share on the Internet and get likes and ad dollars and whatnot.
Here’s a report from the Los Angeles Times (link).
Being a somewhat opinionated individual, I have several thoughts on this story.
Spirit Airlines flight 141 from Baltimore to Los Angeles left BWI at 0824 ET, arriving at LAX at 1034 PT. That’s might early to be intoxicated.
I’ve never flown on Spirit Airlines because, well, they don’t have a reputation for being a classy outfit and I tend to steer away from those types of experiences, especially when it involves being sealed up in an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet for several hours with a bunch of strangers. I have the impression that Spirit Airlines is basically a Wal*mart checkout line with wings.
While I don’t think this was a 1980s boombox, complete with cassette deck and the like, it’s rude to play your music without headphones in a public space, period, end of story, full stop. Earl and I had to endure a woman in a diner over the holidays that kept playing Christmas music off her iPhone and dancing around her booth as she waited for her double portion of Pork Roll. To this day I still can’t wipe out the horrible fidelity of the music nor the ugly Christmas sweater from my memory.
Who gets into a fist fight on an airplane? Who has the energy to get into a fist fight at 10:30 in the morning? Why did the TSA allow a boombox on the airplane in the first place? (Quick side note – the bomb that brought down Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland was concealed in a boombox). Why did the flight attendants address the issue before the situation escalated into a fight between passengers? Why didn’t the passengers recording the fight on their mobile devices step in and try to stop it?
If I had been the pilot I would have introduced the passengers to a maneuver called a “steep turn”. That would have shut them up. There’s a reason I don’t fly for the airlines.
Back to the intoxication. Why were they allowed on the flight? In my years of airline travel I’ve seen a few passengers pulled from a flight for being too drunk. The airline put them up in a hotel so they could sober up and fly safely the next day. Why were these intoxicated women allowed on the flight?
This is yet another example of the dwindling of any sort of manners, dignity or socially acceptable behavior in public. As trash continues to be glorified by the media people think they can do whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want.
It’s just another example of The New Spirit of America.
Health.
As a middle-aged American private pilot I am required by the FAA to have a physical every two years. This physical has to be completed by an FAA Aviation Medical Examiner. Luckily, there are several in the area so finding an AME in these parts isn’t a difficult thing to do. The physical is a thorough assessment of eye sight, color perception, reflexes, blood pressure and the like, overall physical well being and a review of medications and medical history. There are many disqualifying medications, luckily I’m not taking any of them. Yesterday I was deemed fit enough to fly for another two years. To celebrate I went on a solo flight last night and practiced some night landings to maintain my night currency. I have to have three full-stop landings within 90 days to take passengers up with me at night.
One of the things that we talked about during my flight physical was my weight gain since my physical two years ago. My weight has always been akin to a yo-yo. I’m not the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life but I’m currently in the upper 2/3rds of my average weight swings and I’d like to shed a few pounds, primarily to lower my blood pressure naturally and to feel physically better about myself.
That’s where smart choices come in.
Unfortunately, out in the wild there’s a lot of false information out there when it comes to making healthy choices. For example, the convenience store on the corner sells fountain drinks in small, medium and large sizes: 24, 32 and 44 ounce cups. To combat any guilt of one consuming that much sugar, they offer two types of ice: Low Carb and Diet Ice.
Honestly, I don’t know what the difference between Low Carb and Diet Ice is, because ice should be frozen water, which shouldn’t have any calories nor carbs. I mean, water is water. I asked the clerk and she said it was plain water, there was nothing special about it other than it was Low Carb and good for diets.
Every once in a while I treat myself to a diet pop, which I know isn’t good for me. I’ve cut back on diet pop consumption considerably, having such a drink only once or twice a week. I’ve lost a couple of pounds since making this adjustment, and every little bit helps. I’m also focusing on salads; Earl and I just enjoyed a wonderful salad for lunch this afternoon. Another thing that we are doing is eating at home more and saving eating out for when we travel.
The most important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is moving, and this is something that I am trying to do on a daily basis. When you make your living sitting at a desk staring at a computer all day, it’s important to get up and move at least once an hour. I also go for two 20-minute walks during my workday, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Now that spring is here I plan on riding the bike before work, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been braving the traffic in the neighborhood and walking on the shoulder of our busy road. Every step counts.
I have a goal of losing a privately-determined amount of weight by my birthday in July. It’ll take a lot of small steps to get there, but every step counts.
My Favorite Song.
Whenever I need a little inspiration I crank this song up. Originally written as an instrumental dance track by David Guetta in 2008, Kelly Rowland (from Destiny’s Child) convinced Guetta to let her write vocals to the track in 2009. The result, absolute magic.
From 2009, here’s “When Love Takes Over” by David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland.
Outside.
Earl and I went for a walk along the Barge Canal yesterday. Even though it is still technically winter, spring is in the process of springing in these parts. It’s the first time in a long while that I can remember being able to walk along the canal trail at this time of year without having to walk on snow. It was a nice change of pace.
Even though we had a very mild winter this year, I’ve still been feeling the winter blahs and cabin fever. I attribute this to my home office being in the basement. I have a small window that affords me a little bit of outside light, but for the most part it’s artificial lighting and a space heater for me while I work. I can’t complain, I’m a lucky man to be able to work from home, but working from home full-time can be a little tricky if you don’t remember to get outside once in a while. It’s not easy to get fresh air during the winter months in these parts; when snowbanks line the road, there’s not much room for the casual pedestrian. And honestly, as I get older I don’t enjoy bundling up in multiple layers in an attempt to keep warm like I used to do when I was a kid.
As Earl and I walked along the canal yesterday, I was admiring the wooded area that flanked the paved pathway. As a youngster I really enjoyed spending time outside after school. We were lucky to live on ten acres of land, mostly covered with woods and I would spend a lot of time out there hiking and exploring and letting my imagination run wild with all sorts of adventurous scenarios. I had a road network mapped out in my head. I built bridges across several marshy areas. I’d watch the trains come through on the tracks that dissected the land. I’d see how far away I could detect the rumble of an oncoming train. Those woods were my playground and I think playing around in the woods as a teenager helped my maintain my sanity.
One of the very few things I miss about the house that Earl and I lived in before we moved in 2003 was the 38 acres of former farmland that we had surrounding the house. We had trees and ponds and open meadows; plenty of space to roam around in if I wanted to, which I did on occasion. I mowed some paths to walk along. Like the area where I grew up, there was a railroad track that went along our old piece of property and on a couple of occasions I watched the train go by, waving to the passengers headed up into the Adirondacks.
While Earl and I were out about this past weekend, I mentioned that I wanted to build a bridge across the creek the runs behind our house. I’ve been wanting to do this for a decade but never really got around to it. I’ve put it on my priority list for this year. It won’t be anything extravagant; just a couple of supporting beams with pallets put in place to provide a walking surface, but it’ll be easier to get across the stream to the other half of our property, which is a small patch of wooded area bordered by farmland.
I think getting out there once in a while will help me maintain my sanity. The fresh air will do me some good.
Ride.
Earl and I decided to celebrate yesterday’s impending spring weather with a ride through the eastern part of The Empire State.
We started by following Historic US Route 20, which follows the original routing of the route through this area. Many portions were bypassed with a four-lane version of the road. I like following the original route because it passes through many small towns that were bypassed when they built the four-lane version of the road. The Village of Cherry Valley is one of these towns.
One of our goals for this ride was to enjoy a diner or two that we hadn’t been to before, and we found such a place at Gibby’s Diner in Delanson. We were served huge portions of great food and the staff was very friendly. We’d definitely go back there.
We made our way around the Capital District and found ourselves on the Taconic State Parkway headed south. I love driving the Taconic for the same reason that I like driving on the old version of US Route 20, it’s an older road with not as much traffic and it doesn’t have the hustle and bustle of the neighboring Thruway. One of the older service areas in the median has been opened up as a “Taste NY” tourism stop, featuring all locally made products. We picked up some pickles and other goodies.
On our way home we stopped in Middletown at a restaurant called Soho, which was a good experience. We were looking for another local place to eat but the one or two we had spotted closed early on Saturday nights, so that’s why we found this place outside of the Crystal Run Mall. The ride home was uneventful but enjoyable. It was just past 12:30 a.m. when pulled into the driveway. All in all a wonderful, relaxing day.
Spring.
I’m ready for spring. On one hand, we have been extremely lucky with our winter this year as it hasn’t been a typical winter at all. Snowfall totals are way down, the average temperature this winter has been higher than normal; I can’t really complain.
But I’m still ready for spring.
I’m ready for more daylight, riding my bicycle and doing more flying. I’m in an adventurous mood and the winter tends to hold me back on that front. I always feel the need to ride my bike when there’s snow on the ground.
There’s a part of me that feels like we were cheated out of a normal winter but I don’t want to complain about such a thing. Looking at the forecast we could hit 70ºF in these parts next week. I can’t complain about that.
Inspiration.
Whenever I need to feel inspired at work, I watch one of the “A Day In The Future” videos from Microsoft on YouTube. We are just on the edge of the technology shown in this video, and I’m excited to see it coming to fruition. This is the type of working environment that I see myself working in someday, helping create the types of tools seen in this video.
I would love to see Microsoft bring all of this tech to us in the near future. I think they are making progress in that direction, and I’m really hoping they succeed. It’s technology like this that will help us all live together in a better way on the planet.
